1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a learning/growing toy, and particularly, to a learning/growing toy having a detachable central processing unit.
2. Description of the Background Art
Generally, a learning/growing toy is an intelligent toy having a program which allows the toy to eventually react, after a period of learning, to a user""s command via a remote control command or other voice recognizing art. For example, such a toy has a program that if it learns through a command of a user""s voice, sound, light and/or contact, the toy interacts with them. Namely, the learning/growing toy has a program where the toy reacts to learning by a user so that it grows intelligently and functionally.
Here, a toy learns according to a user has a body unit for implementing motion and outputting the audio information as well as a central processing unit for determining action of the toy.
However, the central processing unit is fixed in the body of the toy and accordingly, the toy has a disadvantage that the user should always carry the toy in order to have the toy learn or grow.
Also, since the toy exhibits variable actions according to the self-control determination, a CPU of high-level performance and huge storage capacity is necessary to control respective apparatuses which compose the toy. Therefore, to compose hardware for the above toy requires a high cost even though the central processing unit has relatively simple uses.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a toy having a detachable central processing unit, in which the toy can learn when using the central processing unit only or to utilize the central processing unit as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), mobile phone, or as a personal computer.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided a toy having a detachable central processing unit which is comprised of a toy which learns by receiving input from a user and a central processing unit which is separable from the toy.
Also, there is provided a method for operating a toy having a detachable central processing unit, which comprises the steps of: initializing a main board in the central processing unit, which includes a growth algorithm of the toy, by inputting power; determining whether the central processing unit is linked to a driving unit by communicating with a Digital Signal Processing Unit (DSPU) installed in the driving unit; switching to a self-control mode if the driving unit is linked to the central processing unit; initializing one or more motion control routines of the Digital Signal Processing Unit, a vision processor and an audio codec; and initiating software stored in a flash memory to operate to the toy in the self-control mode.